Reducing the consumption of power in electrical systems is desirable for many reasons. For instance, electrical power can be expensive, and the cost is often charged based on the quantity used. Further, the total available power in an electrical system may be limited. Thus, reducing the power consumption of devices connected to an electrical system such as a power grid can reduce the strains on the electrical system and allow for more devices to operate on the system, or allow for other devices connected to the system to operate with higher power consumptions.
One technique of power consumption reduction is to monitor devices for activity. If no activity is found after some amount of time, the inactive device is put into a reduced power state. If a user wants to use the device when it is in the reduced power state, the user signals to the device in some manner indicating a desire to use the device, and then the device exits the reduced power state. However, this process can take time, and thus may not be desirable if a user does not want to wait for a device to exit the reduced power state. Further, if a device is actively being used, nothing is done to reduce power consumption.
Another technique of power consumption reduction is to monitor the processes operating on a device. If certain processes are not found to be operating on the device, the device transitions to a reduced power state. If one of the select processes is later initiated, the device transitions to a high power state. However, this technique does not reduce power consumption when the high power state processes are being used.